More than a year after Chicago Public Schools closed nearly 50 schools for under-enrollment, there has been little progress on finding new uses for most of the now-empty buildings.

Just three of the buildings have been opened for bidding to potential developers and buyers. Aldermen, who have been charged to gather community input on preferred use of the buildings, have scheduled meetings on seven other schools.

"I think it's moving slow," said Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. , 27th,, who has six closed buildings in his current and former ward boundaries. "For me to have all of these meetings, my schedule doesn't allow me to do it immediately. It should be (Chicago Public Schools) doing this, but they're asking us to do it because they're trying to be sensitive to the community and the aldermen. That type of sensitivity takes time."

CPS is bound by a promise district chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett made not to allow privately run charter schools into any of the buildings. A district official said CPS feels the process to "repurpose" the buildings is moving along at a decent clip, with interest shown in turning the buildings into community centers, affordable housing or social service centers.

But there are no plans in the works for 36 buildings, some of which are being vandalized as they sit empty, becoming neighborhood eyesores.

The district closed 47 elementary schools and a high school program in the summer of 2013, and two more schools closed this past year. Uses were quickly found for 11 buildings, including one that was kept open because the designated school for its students became overcrowded.

Under a process put together by an advisory committee for finding ways to reuse the closed facilities, CPS is working with aldermen to determine community preferences for what to do with...

(Noreen Ahmed-Ullah)

In addition to these buildings, the district has yet to find a use for 21 properties from 2012, when it moved to sell 29 buildings and vacant lots from previous school closings.

The eight buildings that were sold from that bunch brought in a total of about $8.3 million.

Earlier this year, an advisory committee assembled to deal with the latest batch of shuttered buildings recommended that the district and city consider using the buildings before putting them up for sale. If that didn't work out, the buildings are to be put out for competitive bid. If no bids are made or found acceptable, the district and city should attempt to develop the sites with a partner, the committee said.

Terrence Antonio James, Chicago Tribune

Some residents are upset that Chicago Public Schools has been discussing plans to bring a privately managed alternative school into the closed former Fiske Elementary school building.

Some residents are upset that Chicago Public Schools has been discussing plans to bring a privately managed alternative school into the closed former Fiske Elementary school building. (Terrence Antonio James, Chicago Tribune)

Throughout the process, the committee said that the community needed to be engaged and allowed to offer input on all proposals.

Tom Tyrrell, CPS' chief operating officer in charge of selling or finding new uses for the closed buildings, said the district will not consider bids considered too low.

"They're not going for $1, $5 or $10," Tyrrell said. "That would be shirking our fiduciary responsibility. We will sell them for a price that's reasonable and rational based on the market."

The cost to maintain and upgrade some of the aging school buildings can be considerable. If buildings do not generate interest from community groups or commercially, CPS will work to "figure out something that the community would support and that CPS would not have to fund because at the end of the day we have to get these buildings off our books," Tyrrell said.

Aldermen said some organizations have expressed interest in buildings without indicating how they might pay for them.

CPS is spending $1.8 million a year on the shuttered facilities, which covers electricity, mobile heat and gas costs, roving custodial and engineer crews, and repairs for buildings that are vandalized.

At the former Laura Ward Elementary in East Garfield Park, Ald. Burnett said vandals have stolen copper and wiring, tearing up walls in the process. The building, a relatively modern looking structure, is now boarded up and tagged with graffiti.

Emily Dowdall of the Pew Charitable Trusts, which is studying school closings across the country, said it is essential "to get schools on the market as quickly as possible."

"The longer schools sit empty before they're put up for sale the harder it is to find a new use for them. Chicago does have a stronger market overall than some other cities we've looked at, but many of these properties are located in the most struggling areas of the city, and they don't make for easy sales."

Dowdall said CPS made it's job harder by restricting charter operators from taking over the buildings.

This past spring, North Lawndale residents raised a ruckus when a charter operator in their community made a presentation to the district's community action council about taking over the vacant Pope Elementary building. That proposal has not advanced, said CPS spokesman Bill McCaffrey.

North Side Ald. James Cappleman, 46th, said he's received interest from a charter school for the Stewart Elementary building, and has also heard calls to turn the old school into a community center, senior affordable housing or market rate housing. His goal is to have CPS use the building for a magnet school.

Ald. Pat O'Connor, 40th, told residents at a community meeting that his office has received proposals to turn the shuttered Trumbull Elementary in Andersonville into a distillery or a grocery store, in addition to requests for senior housing or a charter school.

Allowing a charter or other private schools into the buildings is a sensitive topic for many community residents. At a community meeting last week regarding the former Fiske Elementary building, residents expressed outrage over reports that a local pastor, the Rev. Byron Brazier, had been working with CPS to bring a privately managed alternative school, Camelot, into the closed Woodlawn facility.

"We were told that the process would include community," said Dominique Carter, 40. "My concern is I don't think other interested parties got a chance to look at the property."

CPS' Tyrrell tried to assure the crowd that the community's input was being sought and would be heeded.

Cochran said he had been approached by CPS and Brazier's organization, Network of Woodlawn, about the possibility of opening a Camelot school in the fall. He felt that was moving too fast because it wouldn't provide enough time for community input.

"I think the process needed to be open and inclusive," he said. "As it had rolled out, many of us were caught off guard."

Historically, CPS as well as other districts across the country has filled closed schools with charters. Andrew Broy, president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, said he's told community groups in Austin and North Lawndale that some charter operators have raised the funds necessary to also rehabilitate some of the old CPS buildings.

"I think you'll find the best use for these buildings in many cases will be a school," Broy said. "If you have a charter or contract school, or a private school any kids in a school, that would be preferable to another vacant building being a magnet for bad activity."